For audiences eager to sample the joys of the operatic experience but concerned that a full-scale production might be too intensive - and expensive - soprano Sharon Maxwell-Yamamoto has an in-between proposition for you.

"For years I kept hearing from people telling me they hate opera," she says. "And what it turns out is that they find it too long and incomprehensible. So I decided to just give them the highlights."

Founded three years ago, her company, Opera Bravura, specializes in presenting operatic excerpts, but doing them in costume and with orchestral accompaniment. The idea, she says, is to present opera for audiences who don't think they like opera.

"The idea is to do this as professionally as we can, to give people the feeling of being in the middle of a performance," says Maxwell-Yamamoto. "At first we tried doing it with just a piano, but that wasn't cutting it. I like to present things on a big scale."